Inter-county careers may be getting increasingly shorter but there are always a few who buck the trend.

Fermanagh’s Ryan McCluskey is officially the longest serving Championship player at inter-county level and is one of three players who made their debut in the first year of the ‘back door’ system in football - the last of the qualifier generation.

The same level of longevity isn’t as apparent in hurling, partly due to a spate of long-serving Kilkenny hurlers having departed in recent years.

Football

McCluskey, who turns 36 next month, even outlasts the qualifier era to a degree having been part of the Fermanagh panel for the 2000 Championship campaign, though he didn’t feature.

He made his debut in a drawn Ulster preliminary round tie against Donegal 16 years ago with Fermanagh going on to win the replay.

He has been at the coalface for the most successful era the county has known and featured at corner-back in the fairytale run to the 2004 All-Ireland semi-final, where Mayo edged them out after a replay, a fate they also suffered against Armagh in the 2008 Ulster final.

His service hasn’t been unbroken, however, as he took sabbaticals in 2007 and ‘11.

McCluskey is also a talented soccer player having lined out for Portadown and Dungannon Swifts.

Cluxton, aged just 19, deputised for first choice goalkeeper Davy Byrne, who was injured, in the Leinster quarter-final and semi-final wins over Longford and Offaly respectively in 2001 before Byrne returned for the final loss to Meath.

Byrne retired at the end of that campaign and Cluxton has been the undisputed first choice ever since and is widely considered to be the finest goalkeeper in the history of the game.

He has changed the game beyond recognition with regard to restarts, while he also solved a long-range free-taking problem that Dublin had for years, culminating in his shooting the winning point in the 2011 All-Ireland final.

He holds four All-Irelands, a record 12 Leinster Championships, four Leagues and five All Stars, while last year he became the first man to lift the Sam Maguire Cup three times as captain. And he’s not finished yet.

Brady didn’t feature against Dublin the day that Cluxton made his debut but he made his Championship bow at corner-back a couple of weeks later in the first round of qualifiers ever played.

Longford lost to Wicklow to bring the summer to a familiarly early halt but the qualifiers would bring about an upturn in the county’s fortunes.

Over the years, Brady has played his part in a number of memorable victories over the likes of Derry (three times) and Monaghan, with their best run coming in 2006 when they reached the last 12, while there was also a stint in Division Two.

Just last month, he lined out at corner-back yet again as Longford staved off relegation from Division Three with a draw against Antrim.

Breheny pre-dates the two players above him in terms of first playing at senior inter-county level having made his debut in the League in October 2000 against Fermanagh, on a day when McCluskey also came off the bench.

However, he didn’t feature in the Championship the following summer as Sligo made it all the way to the last 12, but made his debut against New York the following year and earlier this month became the first player to feature against the Exiles four times.

Just gone 36, he has regularly cited the allure of becoming the first Sligo player, along with Ross Donovan, Charlie Harrison, Brendan Egan and David Kelly, to win two Connacht medals having been full-forward on the 2007 Nestor Cup winning side that was managed by his brother Tommy. Sligo have lost three provincial finals since.

Breheny also says that winning an All Star is a target and his form has held up well in recent seasons.

Tyrone’s Sean Cavanagh also made his Championship debut the same month as Breheny but that was his first season on the senior panel.

The Clonkill man made his Championship debut at full-back while still a minor 16 years ago and still continues to give sterling service to the county, having also enjoyed a stint with the footballers.

Hurling has always been his first love, however, and he has enjoyed relative success with Westmeath, playing in their most notable Championship wins over Dublin in 2006 and Offaly last year.

Though he started out for the county as a commanding full-back, Murtagh was rebranded as a pivotal forward later in his career. He won three Christy Ring Cup titles and a Division Two NHL title in 2008, as well as an Interprovincial Championship with Leinster in 2009.

He was absent through injury as Westmeath exited the Championship this month.

Michael ‘Brick’ Walsh (Waterford)

Championship debut: May 13, 2002 v Clare (football)

Though a long-time mainstay of the Waterford senior hurling team, Walsh comes from a predominantly football area of the county and has racked up seven county titles with Stradbally.

His first taste of inter-county action at senior level was with the footballers in 2002 but Waterford won their first Munster SHC title in 39 years that summer and his head was inevitably turned.

He made his hurling championship debut as a sub against Kerry on May 11, 2003 and has gone on to become one of the county’s outstanding servants.

The ultimate team player and hugely versatile, he has collected three All Stars, two at centre-back and one at midfield, but has also been a hugely effective forward and is now back operating in attack.

He has won three Munster titles and two Leagues, one each as captain, and if Waterford are to end their All-Ireland hoodoo this year you can be sure the the 34-year-old will have been prominent.

Like Walsh, O’Callaghan first made waves in football and combined the two codes for a couple of years before concentrating on football, then hurling.

His first Championship appearance for the hurlers came against Westmeath on June 13, 2004 though their summers were short back then. He won two Leinster titles with the footballers in 2005 and ‘06 but fell down the pecking order and later rejoined the hurlers as they began to make strides.

A very tidy forward, O’Callaghan was part of the teams that won historic League and Leinster titles in 2011 and ‘13 respectively under Anthony Daly and is arguably more consistent now than ever.

The 33-year-old missed the League campaign after undergoing back surgery but manager Ger Cunningham will be counting on his experience for the Championship.

Goalkeeper Maguire made his Championship debut for the Dublin hurlers the same day as O’Callaghan 13 years ago.

It would be a few years after that before Dublin made notable progress but Maguire was part of the first underage side that suggested a brighter future lay ahead having been between the posts for the run to the 2000 All-Ireland minor semi-final.

With no shortage of top class goalkeepers around over the course of his career, Maguire at his best was near the top of the list, as evidenced by his All Star award in 2011 having starred in Dublin’s League title win and run to an All-Ireland semi-final that year.

He also won a Leinster title in 2013 and though he has lost his place to Alan Nolan and Conor Dooley in the meantime, he finished last year’s Championship as first choice and is vying with Ballyboden clubmate Dooley for the No 1 jersey this summer though a suspension currently hangs over him. Meath’s Stephen Clynch made his Championship debut the month before Maguire against Laois but didn’t play another top tier Championship game until this year.